Slow Burn(88)

    His gaze flitted over me. I was still holding my shirt, but I’d brought it up against my body so that it was covering me a little bit. “Tell you what, Leigh. Take of your bra, and I’ll help you get a job at my gentlemen’s club.”

    “What does it matter, Axel? It’s not like you haven’t seen my boobs before.”

    “Not in a while,” he said. “Not like this.”

    And it felt wrong somehow. I felt like I was in the spotlight, and I didn’t like the way he was greedily eyeing my bare skin. How had I never noticed what a jerk Axel was before?

    “Just take off your bra,” he said. “If you want to be a stripper, you have to be able to strip, babe.”

    I let my balled up shirt drop back on the floor. He was right. I needed to get used to greedy eyes on me. I needed to get used to being looked at the way Axel was looking at me. Maybe it was worse because I thought he was my friend. I wasn’t sure. But I did know that I didn’t have any other options here. I was on the run, all alone, with no money and no place to stay. Axel was the only friend I thought I could turn to, but he hadn’t turned out to be much of a friend.

    I needed to toughen up. The world wasn’t a bed of roses, or—if it was—they had thorns. This was about my survival here. This was about doing what I had to in order to take care of myself.

    I reached back and undid the hooks on my bra. I slid the straps over my arms. I let it drop.

    Axel smiled. “That wasn’t so difficult, was it?”

    The air felt cold. I watched as my skin reacted, my nipples tightening. Under his gaze, I felt exposed and cheap. I lifted my chin. Damned if I was going to let it show.

* * *

    Sheena was pressed up against my back, writhing against me as she undid the hooks on the front of my corset. A group of men had gathered around the stage, whooping at the two of us. Axel had been right. Girls taking each other’s corsets off was a big draw. I did my best not to roll my eyes, to pretend like I was enjoying this. After all, I needed the damned money.

    Her fingers were deft and quick. She’d had some practice with this. And the corset took so damned long to get off that even moving fast, it still seemed like a long, drawn-out seduction.

    At the edge of the stage, the gathered men were already stuffing dollar bills in our garters.

    Sheena smiled at them, and I tried to as well.

    But it was hard for me, like always. I had thought that I’d be good at a job like this. That I’d enjoy the attention. But there was something in their eyes that I didn’t like, and I didn’t know how much longer I was going to be able to handle it. They looked at me like I wasn’t real. Like I wasn’t really flesh and blood. It bothered me.

    Sheena pulled apart the last of my hooks, opening my corset. She moved away from me and let me slowly remove it, mugging for more money from the men at the front of the stage, now that I was down to my thong, garter belt, and stockings.

    I would have my own slow, seductive dance here, and then I’d help Sheena take off her corset. She faded over to another pole while I crouched down to shake my bare breasts in the faces of the customers.

    More money got shoved into my garter. I tried not to look them in the eyes as I did it. I focused on their foreheads instead. I didn’t want to see their expressions.

    So, I didn’t recognize him when he grabbed me by the wrists and yanked me off the stage.





Chapter Sixteen

    I cried out.

    Then I saw his face.

    Griffin.

    Heck, maybe not recognizing him had nothing to do with looking at his forehead. I don’t know if I would have anyway. His hair had grown out a bit. There was a shaggy half-inch all over his head. He hadn’t bothered to shave either, and he had a jagged looking mustache and beard as well. His gray eyes were glassy, and he didn’t seem steady on his feet.

    “What are you doing?” he said. There was a slur in his voice. He was drunk.

    By this time, two of the bouncers in the club had approached the two of us. One wrapped his arms around Griffin in a bear hug. The other got in his face. “You can’t do that, sir.”

    “We’re going to have to escort you out,” said the bouncer holding Griffin’s arms down.

    Griffin shifted on his feet, crouched, and, in a blur of movement, freed himself from the bouncer, tumbling the guy onto his back.